The government sold P20 billion worth of Treasury bills Monday, as investors offered lower interest rates during the first auction of the year.
The Bureau of Treasury said it raised P8 billion from the sale of 91-day debt instruments, P6 billion from 182-day papers and P6 billion from 364-day Treasury bills.
“The auction committee decided for a full award of the Treasury bills offered during the auction, citing healthy market appetite and rates aligning below secondary market benchmarks,” the Treasury said in a statement after the auction.
The first treasury bill auction in 2016 was more than twice oversubscribed, attracting total tenders of P43.5 billion for P20 billion on offer.
Interest rates on the P91-day or three-month debt facilities eased 15.2 basis points to 1.684 percent from the previous rate of 1.836 percent. Tenders for the three-month debt papers reached P16.262 billion, or double the original offer of P8 billion.
Interest rate on the 182-day or six-month debt papers also went down by 20.1 basis points to 1.642 percent from the previous rate of 1.843 percent. Tenders for the six-month debt facilities reached P16.755 billion, exceeding the original offer of P6 billion.
The 364-day or one-year Treasury bills fetched an average rate of 1.74 percent, or 21.2 basis points lower than the previous rate of 1.952 percent. Tenders for the debt facilities amounted to P10.605 billion, exceeding the offer of P4.605 billion.
“Auction results reveal strong preference for the short-dated securities despite thin market activity at the short-end of the curve and downside regional growth and currency risks,” the Treasury said.
The Treasury earlier said it would sell P135 worth of debt papers in the first quarter of 2016, including P60 billion worth of short-term instruments with three, six and 12-month tenors.
The government set the borrowing mix for 2016 at 85 percent from domestic market and 15 percent from foreign sources.
The government taps the domestic debt market to fund most of its financing requirement.